Whose had to activate their Galapagos Travel Zen already?

[phyz]

Just got notification from Orbitz that my flight itinerary had been modified. In essence, from "possible" to "impossible." I'm sure the 10 minutes between arriving in Miami and departing to Quito looked fine on someone's computer screen. Just not on mine.

So far OrbitzTLC s stumped and is contacting the airlines in an attempt to find something that could happen in this space-time continuum.

I'm on hold as I type. I was kinda hoping to be able to keep my Travel Zen powder dry (to mix metaphors) until Friday. So much for that.

[Desktop Icon]

Our flight to Miami arrives at 6:02am, and the flight to Quito leaves at 7:05am. I figured, "Hey, that's possible, as long as absolutely nothing goes wrong." Realizing the hilarity of that last part, I stuck an extra 24 hours between the two events. Now we have a day to kill in Miami, but I hear there's a beach or something nearby.

[phyz]

I meant, "Who's had to activate their Travel Zen" of course. The perils of one-handed typing while on the phone. A man of my age, you'd think I know better.

UPDATE #1: "Is there any way you could fly out of Los Angeles instead of Sacramento?" Oh, you gotta love East-of-the-Mississippi folk. I mean, LA? Sacramento? It's all California. The wouldn't think to ask an Atlanta to switch departure city to New York.

Other options they're pursuing include overnights in Dallas or Miami. Or just cutting mr loose 5 days in advance of a flight originally booked nearly a year ago.

I'm starting to wonder what the TLC in OrbitzTLC stands for.

I know there must be many ways in which this is my own fault. I'm just drawing a blank on that at this moment.

Still on hold.

[phyz]

Our flight to Miami arrives at 6:02am, and the flight to Quito leaves at 7:05am. I figured, "Hey, that's possible, as long as absolutely nothing goes wrong." Realizing the hilarity of that last part, I stuck an extra 24 hours between the two events. Now we have a day to kill in Miami, but I hear there's a beach or something nearby.

I suppose I'll have to offer that as another "solution" that "they can offer me." as I try to solve the problem they created for me. OK, technically it must have been American canceling a flight or some such, but c'mon; this is what Orbitz does for a living.

[Desktop Icon]

Last month we were coming home from Hong Kong with a plane change at SFO. After we got off the plane in SFO I got a voice mail from a United computer telling me that they decided the connection they scheduled for us wasn't going to work after all, so they took the courtesy of removing us from our connecting flight and rebooking us on something seven hours later. We immediately called United and told them that we absolutely had time to catch our original flight, but it was too late; they had already bumped us and given our seats to someone else.

Fortunately we were able to do some scrambling and get a flight on Alaska that was only an hour behind our original schedule. This incident reminded me why I have gone to great lengths to avoid United the past 15 years.

[phyz]

Wow; just checked Travelocity. One seat left on a coupla sweet $2300 tickets.

UPDATE #2: Looks like I'll be overnighting in Dallas Thursday night so I can get to Quito on Friday. Yay me. At least it'll be more money out of my pocket for the added inconvenience, so it's not all bad. Oh, wait a minute.

[phyz]

Hmmm... no beach, so I guess I'll need to book a hotel with teh Intertoobs.

Super8 Irving: here I come!

[The Central Scrutinizer]

Quit complaining. There are starving children in Ecuador who can't even afford to fly. :rolleyes:

[billw]

Better crank up the Galapagos Travel Zen activator another notch....Tropical Storm Edouard is formed in the Gulf of Mexico, and headed west toward the TX gulf coast. Landfall later this week, to give it enough ocean time to turn into a hurricane.

Our flight to Quito is scheduled to leave Houston 6pm Thursday :boggled:

[The Central Scrutinizer]

I'll have to count myself lucky - I'm going through Miami.

[DoubtingStephen]

Surely there is enough time left for a hurricane to interfere with aviation in and out of Miami.

[phyz]

Just a reminder: if your travel arrangements change, be sure to let Joe Wagg know.

[billw]

Edouard is over Houston right now - 2 inches of rain so far in some locations. Hopefully it will have moved out of the area by tomorrow...

[phyz]

I was happy to see that Edouard was moving through ahead of the general JREF Galápagos migration.

[phyz]

Wow, I thought I had used up all my bad karma. I was wrong. After making alternate plans to accommodate AA's efficiency, I got locked into a cheap stay at a DFW-close discount motel with a free airport shuttle.

I guess I don't get out enough to know that it takes 90min from placing the request to seeing the shuttle. 90min and repeated calls to the motel. The driver was hoping for a tip. All I could think of was, "Plant your crops early." No doubt everything *else* will go swimmingly now that the airline and shuttle snafus are behind me.

[phyz]

No doubt everything *else* will go swimmingly now that the airline and shuttle snafus are behind me.

Ah, my stalwart optimism continues to be met with incompetence on the ground . I'm clearly outmatched.

American Airlines couldn't get me to Quito for the fare I paid, so why get me back to Sacramento as planned? After a two-hour rain delay in Miami, my LAX-bound flight was found to be missing an antenna cover. Add an hour. When that was fixed, there were no "rampers" around to push us back. Add another hour. My 3+hour scheduled layover became a -1 hour actual layover.

In LAX, AA-"customer service" reps (actually, "customer servicing" reps would be more appropriate) assured angry AA-397 passengers that the four-hour delay in Miami was strictly weather-related. Anything the flight attendants told us during the delay was to be considered false information. Captain coded the delay as weather, so weather is all that it was. So odd that another AA flight (MIA-LAX) scheduled to leave after us actually left before us. Clearly our cap'n was a loyal company man and didn't want to lose the company any money with hotel vouchers. So no free hotel rooms those of us rebooked "first thing" tomorrow.

I can't wait to book my next flight on American! Best airline ever! (Other than they went 0 for 2 in this fiasco.)

[articulett]

Well, I'd say I feel your pain, but I'm too mired in envy because you got to go the Galapagos.

Ha, ha-- I've had no travel problems this month at all. :p

I, unlike, those fools east of the Mississipi ,know that Northern and Southern California are far apart. I was wondering, however, if you might be going to the AAI convention in Long Beach next month. It's on the Queen Mary which is docked... this curtails some of the traveling problems. And it can help you with transitional sea legs.

http://www.atheistalliance.org/conventions/2008/info.php

[Doubt]

I can't wait to book my next flight on American! Best airline ever! (Other than they went 0 for 2 in this fiasco.)

Just for a reference point, my flight from Miami to Detroit was delayed 1 hour for weather and we had a gate change because the previous flight was late leaving. The only way I can see having a three hour weather delay is that the plane arrived late because of weather. Of course, the can also blame the missing cover on the rain too if they try hard enough.

Also saw one person waiting for his flight out of Miami just before boarding my own flight. He was on the earlier flight out of Quito which required him to be on the 4 AM shuttle for a very long layover in Miami.

[DoubtingStephen]

I can't wait to book my next flight on American! Best airline ever! (Other than they went 0 for 2 in this fiasco.)

That second flight was not completely a picnic either. LAX was our "final destination" in airline terms, despite the 120 mile drive heading back east to get to Palm Springs. At least our pickup truck was about 60 pounds lighter driving home because we had no checked baggage.

We had to race from customs and immigration to get to the gate for our AA flight to LAX, and when we finally got there we were told that the airline had just given our seats away to other passengers.

Terry expressed his lack of enthusiasm for this, in terms which were not at all ambiguous, and we ended up getting on the plane with an empty seat between us.

Rumor has it that our checked baggage may arrive at our home today.

The probability of my ever setting foot in Miami International Airport again is much lower now that I have been there. I loved getting conflicting information about where our baggage would arrive repeated at random intervals to keep everyone confused. And being forced to go through airport security a second time added a whole new layer of stress and anxiety.

TAME air sure knows how to treat people, maybe for our next international trip I'll consider only airlines that are not based in the USA, since every US airline now seems to be extremely disinterested in their customers.

On the brighter side, I'm now copying 45gb of RAW image files to my Mac Pro from my Picture Porter Elite (http://camerasandphoto.com/Electronics-172282-B000OSEI06-Digital_Foci_Picture_Porter_Elite_120GB_Picture_Vi ewer).

[Doubt]

The probability of my ever setting foot in Miami International Airport again is much lower now that I have been there. I loved getting conflicting information about where our baggage would arrive repeated at random intervals to keep everyone confused.


They were just doing that to keep us entertained. They very well cannot have us falling asleep waiting for our bags to arrive. Here in Detroit, they like to use two baggage carousels for incoming international flights. That way we all get to go back and forth between them to look for bags. Unlike Miami where they only come out on one carousel but tell you two different ones are being used.

And being forced to go through airport security a second time added a whole new layer of stress and anxiety.

That is standard procedure for all incoming international flights. And not only in the US. Been through it in Japan and Amsterdam in the last couple of years.

Those red REI duffel bags that several of us had must have been to much for the airline baggage system to handle.

[phyz]

Just for a reference point, my flight from Miami to Detroit was delayed 1 hour for weather and we had a gate change because the previous flight was late leaving. The only way I can see having a three hour weather delay is that the plane arrived late because of weather. Of course, the can also blame the missing cover on the rain too if they try hard enough.

AA 397 for 8/18 had 6:10pm departure time printed on the boarding pass. It was wheels-up at 10:05pm.

It was essentially an hour to cover the antenna (a cherry-picker had to be found), and another hour to get rampers to push the plane back.

So with AA, I had to depart a day earlier than booked and arrive a day late. So add two motel overnights and two more days of parking.

I plan on having a fruitless corrective discussion with AA customer service (as well as OrbitzTLC). But I'll most likely have simply consider the added inconvenience and uncompensated expense as tuition for the lesson of avoiding American Airlines for future travel. USAir and United are already on my "must-miss" list. And I truly do have a great deal of patience (I teach high school).

Southwest and Northwest are still viable in my book; I'll give them further opportunities to grossly disappoint me.

[Unk]

Not as bad as phyz's misadventure leaving Quito, but the Delta flight was 2 hours late as well. Scheduled Quito departure time was 9:52PM, we left at 11:45PM. We made up some time on the flight to Guayaquil, but it was quickly lost. Scheduled departure time was 11:45PM, we left at 1:45AM.

I know at least 4 of us missed our connecting flights in Atlanta.

[SkepticScott]

I missed my connecting flight in Miami. American Airlines strikes again! The flight was 65 minutes late leaving Quito, arrived 75 minutes late in Miami. We got to the gate and then sat there for five minutes before the door was opened. We got to the baggage carousel, which disgorged about 20 bags. Then we watched those bags go around and around for 20 minutes before any new bags arrived. Add in the 15 minutes it took to get through Passport Control and Customs, and I walked out 2.25 hours late.

I had 2.5 hours between flights, so I missed my flight solely due to American Airlines' behavior. Of four flights, three of them took off over an hour late.

I was rebooked on a flight that would leave 6 hours later, and got home around 0300 Tuesday rather than 2100 Monday.

[Boo]

Wow, guess that 4am shuttle to the Quito airport was the way to go.:p We were standing in line to go through Passport check in the Quito airport at the time our flight was scheduled to depart. Fortunately they held the plane as there were about a dozen other passengers in line behind us.

While a 5 1/2 hour layover is not fun my flight did leave on time, which did allow me to get home to find out my son has broken out in a weird rash all over his legs and spend this afternoon in the pediatricians office. Nothing a course of antibiotics and a special soap won't take care of along with washing all his pants, bed sheets and the laundry that BabyBoo brought back with her from her little cruise. Going to work tomorrow is starting to look like a restful thing.


Oh yeah, I can't open over half my picture files. *sigh*

Boo

[The Central Scrutinizer]

American got me home to St. Louis on time and without incident. I love American Airlines!

:duck:

[phyz]

American got me home to St. Louis on time and without incident. I love American Airlines!
:duck:
It's all your clean living, Scrut. We can't all walk the straight and narrow like you. Sheesh!

[Chebutykin]

Gee, I feel all guilty now. I may have been the only person to have a trouble-free flight back. I didn't think I'd ever be thankful for flying through the Houston airport, but yesterday I sure was.

Also, when I got back to Minneapolis, my bag was the first one to roll off the baggage carousel. I was in and out of MPLS in under 10 minutes. I'm sure *that's* never going to happen again!

Sorry to hear that everyone else had lousy airplane karma. I promise to have a terrible flight to Dragon*Con to make up for it.

__________________
Melissa

[Desktop Icon]

Turns out the Amazing Adventure 4 already happened, but it was so exclusive that only we and the Wagg family were present to experience.

We were all booked on the 7:20pm LAN flight from Quito to Miami on Monday, and arrived at the airport as instructed at about 4:30pm. At about 6:30pm, we noticed a bit of, uh, excitement in the air and a rumor started spreading through the terminal that the flight was cancelled. But surely if this was the case LAN would make an announcement about it, right?

Wrong. Instead of getting the information out to everyone all at once, they chose to dispatch a few agents to walk around the terminal and tell passengers one-at-a-freakin'-time. We finally intercepted one of these agents and learned that the flight was delayed until 3:00pm the next day. They were kind enough to have an extensive list of two area hotels we could return to, but not so kind as to be willing to pay for either of them. Incidentally, they told us that that Miami airport was closed, which turned out to be somewhat of a lie.

But, it wasn't as though we could leave right then and there. Since our passports had been stamped for exit, they had to be un-stamped. This involved someone collecting everyone's passports and disappearing with them. After about 30 mintutes, they started trickling back, with ours appearing after about an hour. Then we had the priveledge of winding our way out the jetway, down this hallway and through that door to where we could be reunited with our luggage.

We opted to return to the Marriott, and made it back there at about 9:00pm. Five hours wasted. The remainder of the evening was spent scrambling to rebook our Miami-to-Seattle flight and our Miami hotel. We ate up a fair chunk of Jeff's Skype time dealing with that.

Tuesday we returned to the airport at about noon with the promise that the flight was indeed going out at 3:00pm. That was soon changed to 4:25pm. And whaddaya know, it did actually leave at about that time.

We went on to spend a horrid night in Miami (that's another post all in of itself) and then made it home Wednesday morning. One day behind schedule... annoying, but not the end of the world.

[Wowbagger]

I was on the same flight going to Miami as Boo, and also James Randi and P.Z. for that matter. (and a few others)

P.Z. and I were lucky enough to squeak through the door of the aircraft, mere minutes before it was scheduled to take off.

We begged them to hold the aircraft, though I suspect they might have, anyway, even without our begging. They knew there were dozens of folks still on line at migration.

The bus to the airport actually left 20 minutes later than promised. I will bring this incident to their attention, so that they will not be inclined to delay buses in the future.


ETA: Almost forgot to mention: My flight from Miami to New York actually landed ahead of schedule!

[Hamradioguy]

Ha you guys are lucky. I am stuck here in Quito with Hutch and others as our flight out via Delta was canceled at the last minute. Not the best airport to sleep over in. Hindmost worked the phones all night and has a flight out as I write. We THINK we others may get out of here later today. Keep your fingers crossed! This is a Spanish keyboard, and typing on it is a challenge!

[Doubt]

Ha you guys are lucky. I am stuck here in Quito with Hutch and others as our flight out via Delta was canceled at the last minute. Not the best airport to sleep over in. Hindmost worked the phones all night and has a flight out as I write. We THINK we others may get out of here later today. Keep your fingers crossed! This is a Spanish keyboard, and typing on it is a challenge!

Wow.

Not clear on this, however. Did you guys make it to Peru and get stuck on the way back?

How many are still there?

[Hindmost]

Ha you guys are lucky. I am stuck here in Quito with Hutch and others as our flight out via Delta was canceled at the last minute. Not the best airport to sleep over in. Hindmost worked the phones all night and has a flight out as I write. We THINK we others may get out of here later today. Keep your fingers crossed! This is a Spanish keyboard, and typing on it is a challenge!

I felt like I ditched you all...however, it was a bit of luck...we got home at 9 that night. Very full flights the whole way.

glenn

[Hindmost]

Wow.

Not clear on this, however. Did you guys make it to Peru and get stuck on the way back?

How many are still there?

We got stuck on the way back...everything in Peru was great right until about 30 minutes before we were supposed to take off when were found out the flight out of Lima was cancelled. We got a lot of conflicting info about hotel rooms and future flights etc.

glenn

[Hutch]

We got stuck on the way back...everything in Peru was great right until about 30 minutes before we were supposed to take off when were found out the flight out of Lima was cancelled. We got a lot of conflicting info about hotel rooms and future flights etc.

glenn

Like Glenn says, everything with TACA and LAN Peru was great, left on time, provided food and beverage service above and beyond any US carrier these days, nothing bad to say about them...now as for Delta.

We got to the Lima airport about 7:30Pm, with the first flights due to leave about 11:25Pm and our Delta flight about 12:23am. No problems in checking luggage, customs no hassle, even had a Big Mac for the first time in three weeks (new personal best). The Delta 767 pulled up to the Gate on time and everything was fine....

Until they posted "Cancelled" on the board and the monitor that was showing the Delata flight at the gate went dark. However, no Delta representatives were at the gate, and none showed up for over an hour, leave a bunch of unhappy and confused passengers.

When they finally did show up, they say the plane had a broken something, and they hoped to be going by 12 Noon--or maybe 2PM, they seems to interchange those times quite freely. They mentioned we could get a hotel, but most of us felt a bit skeptical of leaving the airport when they had no idea when we could fly (not to mention it was already past 1am). So our little party of six (hindmost and wife, hamradioguy, El Spectre (who did a masterful job of communicating) a fellow named Frank, and yours truly camped out in the VIP Lounge, in chairs not designed for sleeping, and got maybe 4 hours of less than blissful sleep. Come the dawn, and no Delta reps in sight. El Spectre finally got them to come up to the lounge (at 6'7" and indignant, he's VERY convincing) where they said they would try and take off by 3 PM and they did bring us our boarding passes by 2PM.

The flight finally left about 4PM, getting to Atlanta about 11PM Friday--so of course all the connecting flights had departed. To Deltas' credit, we did get free hotel and food ($14) vouchers. I helped El Spectre claim his luggage--he flew out on a carrier that Delta had no agreement with, so he had been told that Delta wouldn't help him rebook--irritated him something awful. El Spectre finally did find a Delta rep that did help him get rebooked so we parted (different hotels) and I got about 5 hours sleep before getting up and catching my morning flight to Huntsville--and even then, we had to change gates since the original pane had a mechanical failure.

So arrived home about 23 hours late--and I probabyl did better than many on that Peruvian Delta FUBAR.

[Hamradioguy]

Just FYI, I am back home. Got in Sat mid afternoon. Hutch's summary said it all. I'll just add that Delta in Atlanta (their homebase) was a LOT different than Delta in Quito: They had about 8 Reps behind a desk at the airport, handing out new bording passes, shaving kits in a neat little zippered pouch with a T-shirt added therein (Anyone want an extra large T with the Delta logo?), and those vouchers. Seven bucks for a dinner at midnight-which I think we all skipped-and seven bucks for a hotel breakfast were rather stingy, but the hotel accomodations in Atlanta were nice, and the plane back to Bradley the next day was uneventful....and only about 60% full.

Hutch is far to modest to mention it, so I'll say that he performed duty "above and beyond" at Lima Airport VIP lounge, working the computer to look at flight options, and keeping many of the other stranded passengers there informed as to what was happening.

Bottom line is that there's a huge difference between service in the USA and a second world country. (For those who've maybe missed it- I'm the guy who's luggage somehow got "lost" at the Quito airport on the trip down. The folks at Celebrity managed to reconnect the luggage with me, but it took five days.)

[Patricio Elicer]

Turns out the Amazing Adventure 4 already happened, but it was so exclusive that only we and the Wagg family were present to experience.

We were all booked on the 7:20pm LAN flight from Quito to Miami on Monday, and arrived at the airport as instructed at about 4:30pm. At about 6:30pm, we noticed a bit of, uh, excitement in the air and a rumor started spreading through the terminal that the flight was cancelled. But surely if this was the case LAN would make an announcement about it, right?

Wrong. Instead of getting the information out to everyone all at once, they chose to dispatch a few agents to walk around the terminal and tell passengers one-at-a-freakin'-time. We finally intercepted one of these agents and learned that the flight was delayed until 3:00pm the next day. They were kind enough to have an extensive list of two area hotels we could return to, but not so kind as to be willing to pay for either of them. Incidentally, they told us that that Miami airport was closed, which turned out to be somewhat of a lie.

But, it wasn't as though we could leave right then and there. Since our passports had been stamped for exit, they had to be un-stamped. This involved someone collecting everyone's passports and disappearing with them. After about 30 mintutes, they started trickling back, with ours appearing after about an hour. Then we had the priveledge of winding our way out the jetway, down this hallway and through that door to where we could be reunited with our luggage.

We opted to return to the Marriott, and made it back there at about 9:00pm. Five hours wasted. The remainder of the evening was spent scrambling to rebook our Miami-to-Seattle flight and our Miami hotel. We ate up a fair chunk of Jeff's Skype time dealing with that.

Tuesday we returned to the airport at about noon with the promise that the flight was indeed going out at 3:00pm. That was soon changed to 4:25pm. And whaddaya know, it did actually leave at about that time.

We went on to spend a horrid night in Miami (that's another post all in of itself) and then made it home Wednesday morning. One day behind schedule... annoying, but not the end of the world.


Oh man, sorry about that :blush:

I have traveled a lot on LAN and never had such a disastrous adventure. The worst I remember was when they changed planes on last minute, which meant an hour delay or so (and that I lost my window seat).

But you made it home alive, that's what counts in the end :).

[Desktop Icon]

Oh man, sorry about that :blush:

I have traveled a lot on LAN and never had such a disastrous adventure. The worst I remember was when they changed planes on last minute, which meant an hour delay or so (and that I lost my window seat).

But you made it home alive, that's what counts in the end :).


Actually, the time onboard LAN's planes was wonderful, it was just the Quito gate crew and their policies that caused us grief.

But the flights themselves, very comfortable. In fact, we got bumped to first class on the way down because they double-booked our seats, and wow, was that ever plush. On the flight home we found ourselves with yet another double-booking situation, but sadly there were enough free seats in coach to accomodate everyone.

[skeptigirl]

Wow, I thought I had used up all my bad karma. I was wrong. After making alternate plans to accommodate AA's efficiency, I got locked into a cheap stay at a DFW-close discount motel with a free airport shuttle.

I guess I don't get out enough to know that it takes 90min from placing the request to seeing the shuttle. 90min and repeated calls to the motel. The driver was hoping for a tip. All I could think of was, "Plant your crops early." No doubt everything *else* will go swimmingly now that the airline and shuttle snafus are behind me.My Karma, OTOH, must be getting an excellent response.

Leaving Ecuador, I skipped the Cruise Line's bus since it was inconveniently grouped with either earlier or later fliers. When I went to take the hotel shuttle that would normally be $5, I merely signed a voucher for Celebrity to pay. I didn't ask and expected to pay but the doorman handed the voucher to the driver.

Then when I got to the airport, the lines I went through were apparently shorter than the group's lines since I ended up ahead of many people who left on the earlier cruise shuttle service. The flight to Lima was on time and I went right to a bus leaving for Ica as soon as I arrived in Lima (as planned).

I also managed to see everything I wanted to even though I arrived in some towns with only 1/2 day to see something. I caught a 4 seater flight over the Nasca Lines by walking into the first travel agent office on the street by the bus terminal in Nasca despite only having a 1/2 day there.

On the way home every connection was perfectly timed so there was almost no down time waiting in airports and no rush getting through any customs or other airport lines. Even when taking the unscheduled airport shuttle home, it left about 5 minutes after I got there and dropped me off first. I stayed in the Plaza Hotel instead of the Marriott the last night after getting back to Quito. The room was incredible and the cost was half that of the Marriott. The shuttle to the airport was free and left within a few minutes of one's unscheduled request since a trip to the airport and back was only 10 minutes.